It is in this way that great soul power is grown; and the men of this great power are the men who move the world, the men who do the great work in the world along all lines, and against whom no man, no power, can stand.  Call to mind a number of the world’s greatest preachers, or, using again the better term, teachers, and bear in mind I do not mean creed, dogma, form, but religious teachers,—­and the one class differs from the other even as the night from the day,—­and you will find two great facts in the life of each and all,—­great soul power, grown chiefly by much time spent in the silence, and the fact that the life of each has been built upon this one great and all-powerful principle of love, service, and helpfulness for all mankind.

Is it your ambition to become a great writer? Very good.  But remember that unless you have something to give to the world, something you feel mankind must have, something that will aid them in their march upward and onward, unless you have some service of this kind to render, then you had better be wise, and not take up the pen; for, if your object in writing is merely fame or money, the number of your readers may be exceedingly small, possibly a few score or even a few dozen may be a large estimate.

What an author writes is, after all, the sum total of his life, his habits, his characteristics, his experiences, his purposes. He never can write more than he himself is.  He can never pass beyond his limitations; and unless he have a purpose higher than writing merely for fame or self-aggrandizement, he thereby marks his own limitations, and what he seeks will never come.  While he who writes for the world, because he feels he has something that it needs and that will be a help to mankind, if it is something it needs, other things being equal, that which the other man seeks for directly, and so never finds, will come to him in all its fulness.  This is the way it comes, and this way only. Mankind cares nothing for you until you have shown that you care for mankind.

Note this statement from the letter of a now well-known writer, one whose very first book met with instant success, and that has been followed by others all similarly received.  She says, “I never thought of writing until two years and a half ago, when, in order to disburden my mind of certain thoughts that clamored for utterance, I produced,” etc.  In the light of this we cannot wonder at the remarkable success of her very first and all succeeding books.  She had something she felt the world needed and must have; and, with no thought of self, of fame, or of money, she gave it.  The world agreed with her; and, as she was large enough to seek for neither, it has given her both.

Note this also:  “I write for the love of writing, not for money or reputation.  The former I have without exertion, the latter is not worth a pin’s point in the general economy of the vast universe.  Work done for the love of working brings its own reward far more quickly and surely than work done for mere payment.”  This is but the formulated statement of what all the world’s greatest writers and authors have said or would say,—­at least so far as I have come in contact with their opinions in regard to it.